


Maybe We Can Try To Work It Out?

by goodiecornbread



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Episode: s04e07 The Barbecue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:14:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27577028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodiecornbread/pseuds/goodiecornbread
Summary: Rachel checked her phone again.Nothing.She sighed, resigned.I amnotspending the whole evening moping in this dingy motel room,she told herself. She dug some coins from her purse and went out in search of that soda machine she thought she'd seen earlier.‐------------------------Rachel came to Schitt's Creek to reconnect with her (former) fiancé and rekindle their relationship. When he doesn't respond to her messages, she decides to spend the evening with her new friend Alexis and her family.Rachel and Patrick talk during The Barbecue.
Relationships: Alexis Rose & Rachel, Patrick Brewer & Rachel, Patrick Brewer/David Rose
Comments: 4
Kudos: 120





	Maybe We Can Try To Work It Out?

Rachel checked her phone again.

Nothing.

She sighed, resigned. _I am_ not _spending the whole evening moping in this dingy motel room,_ she told herself. She dug some coins from her purse and went out in search of that soda machine she thought she'd seen earlier. Standing there, pretending to decide between diet cola root beer, she heard heels clicking on the sidewalk.

"Omigod, hey!" The tall, stunning blonde from earlier was strutting towards her with a bright smile and a sweet wave. Alexis, right?

"Hi," Rachel replied quietly.

"Um, so I took your _advice_ , which is weird in retrospect considering we, like, literally just met."

"Fair enough," Rachel replied. "And?"

"Turns out that text message wasn't for me after all," Alexis said with a sad smile. "His girlfriend was at a bakery, hence the whole 'prefer bagels' thing." How can she look so sad and so confident and upbeat at the same time?

"Right. So that _girlfriend_ detail would have been pretty useful in the conversation we had earlier, but still…" Alexis shrugged with nonchalance, but Rachel could see she was disappointed. "I'm sorry! I feel somewhat responsible."

"Yeah, I can see that," Alexis said quietly. "It's just weird because I'm always the one being chased?"

"I assumed that. Based on your face. And body."

"Right?" Alexis sighed. 

"At least you got your answer?" Rachel offered. _More than I've got._

Alexis looked up and smiled. "You know what, Rach? Part of me feels like we were _destined_ to meet today."

Rachel smiled back warmly. "Well," she stuck her coins back into her pocket, "that would make you the _one_ good thing to come out of my day."

"Oh no!"

"Yeah," she crossed her arms and sighed. "To be honest, I came here to win someone back, and it didn't happen, so." He didn't even have the decency to text her back. "My big grand gesture ends here. Sleeping alone in some roadside motel."

"Listen," Alexis extended her hand. "It's not over yet. Why don't you come with me to the barbecue that my parents are throwing. We can be each other's," she shimmiered her shoulders and scrunched up her face, "each other's little daties." What did this fool not _see_ in her? Clearly this girl was as beautiful inside as she was outside.

"I would love that." She genuinely would. "Thank you." 

Alexis gave her a small but sincere smile and took Rachel's hand, leading her towards the end of the motel.

"This is going to be fun!" Alexis squealed with newfound delight. "It's not quite Celine's Florida Summer Bash, but still." She gives Rachel an awkward but confident wink. _Who_ is _this girl?_

They heard people talking before they rounded the building, and Rachel hoped it wasn't a big party; she wasn't sure if she could handle a huge get-together today. Luckily there was only a small group crowded around a picnic table decorated with plastic pink tablecloth. Was she crashing a birthday party? 

"Um, thanks for _waiting_ ," Alexis scoffed. Everyone at the table turned around. 

"Alexis!" Said an older man with thick eyebrows. Her dad? "Just in time!" 

"Everybody, this is my new friend _Rachel_ ," Alexis announced, and Rachel gave a little wave. Then her heart stopped. "She's having a bit of a day." 

He's here. 

She's been waiting all day to hear from him, and he's here. Staring right back at her, with as much disbelief in his eyes and she feels in her own. He doesn't look happy. Oh, God, why doesn't he look happy? 

"Patrick?" She knows it's him, but seeing him here with Alexis' family at a plastic table in a field by a motel… it doesn't seem real. 

"Rachel, what are you doing here?" He asks, trying to sound calm. She knows him well enough to sense the panic. 

"What are _you_ doing here? I've been texting you for two days!" 

"Wait, _Patrick_ is your fiancé?!" Alexis asks, clearly bewildered. 

The man across from Patrick in the eccentric sweater turns to him. "I'm sorry, you have a _fiancé_?" 

"No. I mean-- I mean, I don't… _now._ " The girl from the front desk, Stevie, is sitting next to him, her mouth gaping. _What is going on here?_ "But yes," Patrick continues, all eyes on him, "at some point, I mean, we-- we-- we--" He's spiraling. "We, we were…" 

"Patrick, what's going on here?" 

"Okay," says the man in the sweater. "Um, I just think I might need a second." He stands, and Patrick breathes deep. 

"David," he calls, as the man, obviously David, turns and walks towards Rachel. Towards the motel. Patrick stands quickly and follows. Rachel steps forward to say something, but he gives her a look that silences her. "I'm going to talk to you in a minute," his voice sounds like it's about to break, "we got a lot to talk about." He continues after David and out of sight. 

Everyone is silent for a moment. Then Alexis' dad speaks up. "Who is she?" Everyone looked at him, thankfully. "I glanced down at my plate for two seconds." 

Rachel looks down at her feet, embarrassed. Alexis touched her shoulder, then pulled her into an awkward side hug. 

"I-- I don't know what's going on," she manages to say as Alexis stands back up. 

"So _Patrick_ is the guy you are trying to win back?" Asks the girl from the front desk. She's still wearing her nametag: Stevie. When Rachel doesn't respond, just looks up at her. "Jesus Christ," she scoffs, taking a big bite of her burger. 

"So, who was that?" Rachel whispered to Alexis. 

"David? He's my brother," she replies with a flick of the wrist. 

It's so quiet she can hear her heart beating in her ears. Why didn't Patrick respond to any of her texts when he's been right here? How does Alexis know him? Is _he_ the guy she was talking about before? Then why did David seem so mad? Maybe he was defensive on his sister's behalf. 

"It seems that our dear Pat-trick has a previous betrothal of which no one was aware," the woman with red hair (their mother?) said in an indiscernable accent. 

_I feel like such an idiot._

After what seemed like forever of just standing in one spot concentrated on the grass, Patrick blew past them again. She opened her mouth but he raised his hand to stop her, without even looking at her. He went to the table and silently began to compile a plate. He walked it up to them, Alexis taking a few steps towards him. 

"Can you--" he started, holding out the plate. 

"Of course," she cut him off. He took a deep breath. 

"Alexis…" he looked like he was going to cry. Rachel felt an ache in her chest. 

She reaches forward and squeezed his hands, taking the plate for him. "I know, Button," she said sadly. She shifted the overloaded plate to one hand and touched one finger to his nose. She turned and walked away. He glanced at Rachel quickly before turning back to the table. 

"Mr. Rose, Mrs. Rose," he said. "I am so sorry. For all of this. Stevie?" He turned to her. 

"Uh-uh, no," she interrupted. "I'm not getting into this, Brewer." He dropped his head and nodded. He walked back over to Rachel, moving past her. 

"What room?" 

"Uh, nine." She was so surprised he was talking to her that she almost forgot. She spun and followed him, stopping to unlock the door. Patrick looked past her, to the next room, where they could hear some arguing. 

"I don't _care!_ " she heard a man shout, probably David. Patrick winced. 

"Patrick, what is going on?" She asked when they stepped into her room. It seemed so much darker inside. 

"I should ask you the same thing! What are you doing here?" 

"I… I came to see you," she said sheepishly. It sounded stupid now. 

" _Why_?!" Patrick was clearly more upset than she realized. She walked up to him. 

"Because I missed you. I thought maybe you'd miss me," she tried to wrap her arms around him, but he stepped back. 

"Stop." He never talked to her like this before, so angry and curt. It hurt. 

"I thought maybe… maybe we could try to work it out?" 

He sighed. "Rachel, I have a life here." He rubbed his hands over his face. "I have a job-- a _store,_ with David." 

"Okay," she said cautiously, inching closer. _Just let me come to you and we can make this work._ "We can figure it out." 

"I don't want to," he muttered into his hands. 

"Why not?" She reached up and touched his arm. He dropped his hands to look at her. 

"Because I don't want what we had before." 

She sighed. "I know, it wasn't perfect, but we can--" 

"Rachel, I don't _want_ that!" He said louder. She looked at him and scowled. 

"Why not?!" Shd demanded indignantly. 

"Because," was all he'd say. No, that wasn't good enough. She didn't come all the way out here to leave without an answer. 

"Because _why?_ " 

"Because I'm gay!" He shouted. She flinched. He looked at her and sighed. "I'm gay." 

It felt like all of the air was sucked out the room. He wasn't making any sense. 

"No, Patrick," she tried to work through her thoughts, "We've… _been_ together." 

He sighed, looking at her fully for the first time. "Rach," he said tenderly. "You know how hard it was, how hard we had to _try_ to make it work? How hard we had to try to be _happy_? It isn't supposed to be like that." 

She felt like she'd been hit in the gut. "You weren't… _happy_ with me?" She blinked hard to stop the tears. _We were the perfect couple. Right?_

"You can't tell me you were happy," he said just above a whisper. 

She felt a tear betray her by falling down her cheek. "But, I love you," she said softly, and the rest if the tears broke free. He pulled her to his chest as she sobbed, feeling safe in his arms. 

"Rach, I love you, too. You know I do." He rubbed her back. "You're my best friend. But you can't tell me you were happy." 

She sniffed, and thought. He was right, their relationship took a lot of work. They broke up so many times but it was just easy to fall back into it. She loved him, but was she truly _in_ love with him anymore? 

"I guess I thought we'd just been together so long, we were in a little slump or something. That maybe the wedding would have changed things." He stiffened, and she pulled back. 

"I think the wedding would have… I couldn't have done it." She nodded. 

"Why didn't you tell me?" She asked quietly. He sighed, rubbing his face with his hands again. Was he crying too? 

"I didn't know." He said, and smirked with an inside joke. "I really didn't know. Then I got here, started trying to throw myself into work with a local business consultant, trying to just get out of my head. And then…" he stopped, smiling to himself at the memory. 

"What?" 

"Then I met David." He smiled. 

"David." She repeated. Alexis' brother? Was that why he stormed off? "So, what's so special about David?" Her question had more poison than she intended, but she was still hurt and wanted him to know. 

"He's just so..." He sat down in the chair by the small table, trying to explain himself. "He's eccentric and dramatic, and so brilliant. The store? All his idea. All of it. Such a great idea, beautiful aesthetic, perfect for this town. When I heard his pitch I _had_ to get on board. He was like this… star, and I was being pulled into his orbit, I _had_ to be closer to him. I couldn't take my eyes off of him. He is so amazing, creating it all from the ground up. The vendors absolutely love him, this town is _thriving_ because of him. And it's just so _easy_. Easy to be myself, be with him. Easy to laugh and tease, easy to be insecure and vulnerable. Just _easy._ And he acts so, so _tough_ and like he doesn't care, but he is _so_ kind. _So_ strong. Behind those walls, he--" he stopped, realizing he'd been rambling. He cleared his throat. "Well, now I don't know if I'll ever know what's behind those walls." He looked down, wringing his hands. 

Rachel just stared. She had known Patrick for most of her life. She had been in a relationship with him for _years_. She'd seen him happy, excited, optimistic. But now, she realized that she'd never seen him this passionate. Never about another person. Never about her. 

"I messed this up," she whispered. His head snapped up. 

"No." He said firmly. "No, Rach, you did nothing. I should have told him. I should have told him _months_ ago." 

"Why didn't you?" Was he ashamed of her? Ashamed of having been with a woman? 

"I don't know," he sighed. "I just wanted us to stay in this bubble. I didn't want it to get complicated. So we locked it up. But I shouldn't have. I know that. I've _known_ that." He looked up at her with red-rimmed eyes. "I was so scared to lose everything I'd just found. But I lost it anyway." 

She rolled her eyes, suddenly annoyed. "Come off it, Patrick." He gave her a surprised, confused look. She sat across from him. "Listen, you were… you weren't wrong. About us. It was work." It was almost a relief to admit that, despite not having realized it just minutes before. "But if you were willing to put in that much effort for _us_? To keep us together, when it wasn't," she took a breath, "It wasn't ever going to work, was it?" He reached across the table and squeezed her hand. "So why can't you put in that work for-- for _him_?!" 

Patrick shook his head. "He doesn't want to see me," he told her. "He will probably never want to see me again." His eyes welled with tears at the thought, and he looked down to fight them. 

"Is he worth it?" 

He paused. Sniffed. Looked into her eyes. "Absolutely." 

"Then _fight_ for him, Patrick." 

"Thank you, Rachel." He whispered. "I'm sorry. For all of this." 

She sat back and laughed, wiping her eyes. "Don't worry about me," she said with forced nonchalance. "Just go get your man." 


End file.
